


Thatched Roofs, Melted Wax, Fractured Crowns

by BornofFlame



Series: Sanders Sides One Shots [40]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Implied/Referenced Torture, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:48:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27399751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BornofFlame/pseuds/BornofFlame
Summary: When the king sneaks away from his palace for a break, he finds something he wasn't expecting.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders
Series: Sanders Sides One Shots [40]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1878814
Comments: 3
Kudos: 70





	Thatched Roofs, Melted Wax, Fractured Crowns

**Author's Note:**

> enjoy!

In the three years that Janus of Onryx had been a companion to the king, not once, not twice, but almost fourteen times that the man had gone missing. Most of the time, he had been found hiding somewhere on the grounds, so not exactly missing, but it did add some spice, so he dealt with it.

So don’t judge him if he was rather indifferent to the guard that had burst into his personal study.

“The king is missing.”

“Don’t bother me, I’m busy.” Janus flipped a document over, pulling out a candle so he could wax seal the back.

“He’s not in the palace.”

“Do I care?”

“Janus, please, he was here last.” the guard shifted nervously as Janus lit the candle, still indifferent.

“Let me finish this up and I’ll do your job for you.”

…

The king, meanwhile, was being insulted by a rather cheeky young man. Roman had said good morning to Janus and then had snuck out of his own palace to head to the surrounding town.

Roman loved his job, he loved the people, but he hated how it made it difficult to just go out and observe.

Anyway, he had made it to the edge of the town, where the poorer people lived when the voice assaulted him.

“Looks like a little royal got lost, eh?”

Roman paused. There wasn’t anyone in the area and so he slowly turned in a circle, one hand flinching to his sword. “Where are you?”

“Does it matter? Well, I guess it does, you do look higher ranking than me by any chance. I’m on the roof to your right.”

Roman turned and looked up to see the owner of the voice, who was lounging on the thatch roof of a small shack, smirking.

“Hello Princey.” Roof guy said, waving. “Here to tax me again? Honestly, at this point, might as well take the skin from my neck before I commit high treason.”

Roman sputtered. “I… I was just taking a walk… Thatcher in the Rye.”

“Very creative for a royal. I’m not a thatcher. This isn’t even my roof.”

“It’s not?”

“No, it belongs to the rich fucker who is gonna force me off it.”

Roman really wished that his father had taught him how to talk to people like this. He honestly had no idea.

“can I get a name?”

“Nah.”

“Well, Nah, how can I help you?” Roman swept into a bow, feeling a bit silly to be bowing to a dirt covered person on a roof, but they laughed.

“A royal, bowing to me of all people! Must be my unlucky day. You can’t help me. When I said that I didn’t own this roof, I meant it. It’s eviction day, I’m just waiting to be dragged off in chains.”

The nonchalant way that he seemed to accept it was jarring to Roman. Yet, behind the dirt and the wary gaze, he could see very real panic in the other’s eyes.

…

To say that Virgil was having a good day was a lie. First he’d had woken up to the reminder that this was his last day of freedom and when he decided to make a last, bold but stupid stand, the freaking king had shown up.

He was playing dumb in hopes that King Roman would laugh it off and hopefully leave before the count could show up.

God, it’d be embarrassing to be dragged off kicking and screaming if his royalness was watching.

Unfortunately, the king was still talking and Virgil could see a cloud of dust from about a mile off, which could only be caused by horses.

“Do you know who I am?” The king’s voice pulled his eyes back down. Virgil shrugged.

“You’re dressed like a common folk, but your clothes are too clean and you wield a sword. Most likely a royal boy running from his mommy and daddy for a day out.” Virgil looked back up to see that the dust was closer, probably arriving within the next five minutes.

“How dare! I am an adult.”

“Cool, I don’t care. Run off royal, before the wolves come.” Virgil waved his hand dismissively and the king looked taken aback as he swiveled around to see the approaching count with his entourage. 

“Virgil! Get down from there.”

Virgil rolled onto his back, taking in the sky. “Can I take a week to think about it?”

The count sighed, hell it was loud, Virgil could hear it from here, almost fifteen feet away.

“Do you want to be forcefully removed?”

“I mean, I would have gotten off the roof if I wasn’t expecting a fight.” Virgil flipped over again, glaring at the count, the king lost in the small crowd of people that had started to gather outside of their nearby homes to watch.

It happened pretty fast. One of the entourage walked his horse forward, reached up and yanked Virgil down by the hair.

Virgil fell, landed on the dirt with a thud and then scrambled to his feet, attempting to book it before the man from before grabbed his hair again.

“Sorry.”

“It’s whatever I guess. You were hired for this right? Can’t hold it against you.” Virgil said as roof puller got off his horse.

“I have to tie you up.”

“Fair enough.”

The ropes were the worst, and it was only now that Virgil’s bravado left him as he was thrown on the back of a horse, completely at the mercy of the count and company.

He looked up as the horse started to walk, catching a glimpse at the crowd.

“Bye! Wish me luck as I rot!” One last jab, fake snark as a hope to the others that he wasn’t about to be broken.

Virgil then closed his eyes, and quietly began to cry.

…

Janus had finally finished what he needed done when another guard ran in, further annoying him.

“We found him.”

“Thank goodness, I was _so_ worried.”

“He wants to speak with you.”

Janus stood and pushed his chair back, following the man to where Roman’s study was.

His partner was pacing the study, dressed in what looked like a poor disguise, hands running nervously through his hair.

“Ro, what’s wrong?”

Roman looked at him. “Just something I saw today. Do we really tax people so much?”

Janus let out a quiet sigh. “Honey, you might want to sit down.”

“No, I want to know the answer. I just watched someone get tied up and taken because they couldn’t pay! How is that fair!” Roman whirled around, tears pricking in the corners of his eyes.

“We try to do it percentage based. The person you was taken probably owed private tax.”

Roman turned again and Janus walked over, stretching out a hand. “Did you get a name? We can look into it.”

“Virgil. I don’t think he had a surname. But Janus, they ripped him off his roof and just.. took him, it was horrible.” Roman took Janus’ hand, still shaking a bit as his partner folded him into a hug.

“We’ll look at it, promise.”

…

Roman waited a week before looking back with the records finder to see if there was any clue where Virgil was.

Logan was annoying, but at least he did his job better than anyone. He handed Roman a stack of transcripts, and when he looked through it, it was all trade receipts between Virgil and the Count Burgess, and the prices slowly got higher with no explanation to why or what was being traded.

At least he had a location now. Roman took Janus and a few guards on the journey to the Count’s estate.

Needless to say, the Count was surprised to see the king knocking on his door.

“Your Majesty. To what do I owe the pleasure, and with so little warning?”

Roman stepped forward as the Count bowed. “Just looking for someone. Virgil was his name. There’s no record of him after you settled your debts with him.”

“But of course. Come in?”

The group entered and Roman shivered. Everything was perfectly clean, but even then, it all just felt shifted to the left.

“I don’t have many that come to me for financial aid, but when they do, it’s always delightful to help them out. Of course, the poor boy couldn’t pay me back…” the Count turned and opened a door. “He’s down there, two at a time.”

Roman gave Janus’ hand a squeeze before nodding to the Count. “I’d prefer to go first.”

“But of course.”

The pair went down the stairs, it being eerily silent.

“Now, before we enter the backrooms, I’d prefer you don’t have me killed, I’m only collecting my debts.”

Roman narrowed his eyes. “You say that as if you are doing something that would warrant death.”

The Count shrugged. “You seem to be the overly emotional type you Majesty. I learned my method of debt collecting from your father, so forgive me if I do offend you.”

Then he opened the door.

…

Virgil woke up, feeling like death itself had sucker punched him. He didn’t bother opening his eyes, it was dark, of course it would be, he was in the dungeons after all.

Something felt off though.

“Is he okay?”  
“MMMMmmm, no, the infection is pretty bad. I’m sorry Ro. He’ll probably be in and out of consciousness over the next few days.”  
“Thank you.”

Virgil tried to open his eyes, yelped in pain from the natural sunlight and then tried to roll away, pain flaring absolutely everywhere.

“Hey, you’re okay now. Promise.”

Virgil didn’t respond and he felt a hand rest on his forehead. 

“I’m so sorry etoile. Just rest okay?”

Virgil nodded.

Something warm covered him and he drifted off again.

…

Janus was surprised that Roman had let the Count live. After everything had gone down, they’d returned to the palace with one less Count and one patient in need of severe healing from the injures and undernourishment from just one week.

They were laying in bed when Roman first asked him.

“Am I bad because of what my father did?”

Janus rolled to his side to look at his love. “You saved Virgil, right?”

“yes, but~”

“No buts Ro, you did better than any king I know. You’re a hero.”

“Hmm.” Roman muttered before scooting closer to Janus. “I’m worried. Patton said that he’d get better, but I still worry.”

“How about you let the funny magic man do his healing, and I’ll make sure that you don’t go stir crazy waiting for your crush to wake up.”

“Not a crush.” Roman protested.

“Virgil is very pretty though, you told me that. And you seemed to put a lot of effort in for one person who owed debts to a person.”

“Okay, fine, you win Jan, but you’ll see once he’s coherent. He’s wonderfully snarky.”

Janus laughed quietly. “Fair enough.”

…

Roman wasn’t in the country when Virgil first awoke and was actually functioning past a fever dream and a few mumbled sentences.

Janus was there however, and Roman was right.

Virgil was incredibly snarky, and also very antsy, further proven when he tried to clamber out of the bed, almost falling before Janus caught him.

“Let the fuck go of me.”

“I’m sorry, I’d rather not have staff clean blood from your face off the ground when you collapse.”

Virgil hissed and Janus begrudgingly let him go, hands still hovering just in case.

“Roman’s going to be disappointed that he didn’t get to meet you.”

“We’ve met.”

“Ah yes, the roof incident, I’m well aware.”

“Fuck you.”

…

It took a long time for the scars to heal. It took even longer for Roman to work up the courage to ask if Virgil would court him.

~~And it was Janus who asked in the end anyways.~~

**Author's Note:**

> kudos?  
> comments?  
> I now have a discord server! [Here it is!!!](https://discord.gg/MfZNrMY)


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